Commanding officer

The commanding officer (CO) or commander, or sometimes, if the incumbent is a general officer, commanding general (CG), is the officer in command of a military unit. The commanding officer has ultimate authority over the unit, and is usually given wide latitude to run the unit as they see fit, within the bounds of military law. In this respect, commanding officers have significant responsibilities (for example, the use of force, finances, equipment, the Geneva Conventions), duties (to higher authority, mission effectiveness, duty of care to personnel), and powers (for example, discipline and punishment of personnel within certain limits of military law). In some countries, commanding officers may be of any commissioned rank, although in others the term only refers to officers in command of units of specific sizes. Usually, there are more officers than command positions available, and time spent in command is generally a key aspect of promotion, so the role of commanding officer is highly valued. The commanding officer heads the command team within the modern military hierarchy. There are two recurring debates related to military command: the collective command thesis and civil-military relations. While the commander is an individual, the academic debate centres on whether command is an individual act or a form of a collective. British sociologist Anthony King argued for the emergence of a command collective in Western military forces in his 2019 book Command. Others have argued against King's thesis, stating that it romanticises the collective, that contemporary commanders themselves do not understand their function in this way, or that it may be the case. Still, collective forms of command are less effective in actual combat. U.S. Marine Corps General James Mattis also disagreed with King's thesis: "I disagree if you are trying to do decision-making in boards. The enemy will dance around you"....